Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal sought the advice of political parties to deal with the use of financial power in elections.
“How can we handle financial power? You give me an idea. People have more money now. How do we control it?” he said on Tuesday.
He made the remarks during a dialogue with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Bangladesh at the Election Commission headquarters in Dhaka.
The Chief Election Commissioner called for building a social movement to stop the use of financial power in the polls.
He said more often, the public expense that the candidates submit to the commission does not match the actual expense.
He said: “It has become a bad culture of spending money to hire criminals. Hiring a professional killer won't cost much these days.”
“We all need to build a social movement to get out of this culture. We can't say much about money and muscle power right away. You have to be on the field and we will help if you give us information.”
Regarding the use of EVMs in the polls, the CEC said that the vote will be recorded even if someone breaks the EVM.
On the other hand, if ballots are used, five people can cast 500 votes through ballot stealing.
“There are various types of problems. We will have to conduct a balanced, impartial, corruption-free election after taking every issue into consideration,” he said.
Calling on the political parties to keep faith, he said: “Have some trust in us but you also have to be vigilant.”
He added that it is the duty of the political parties to monitor everything as well.
The CEC also said: “Don’t expect the election to be similar to the 2018 polls. The election will be as per the laws. We will try our best to fulfill our responsibility.”
He said that the political parties should share responsibility with EC to ensure discipline at the polling station with their financial power and muscle power.
“'Parties should also keep us accountable,” he said, adding that if any irregularity from the commission is found, it should be reported.
